Quick Start Rules 1 True20 QuickStart Rules Quick Start Rules True20 is an adventure roleplaying game in which you, the players, take In general, positive conditions grant a +2 modifier, while adverse on the roles of fictional heroes having adventures in an imagined conditions impose a –2 modifier. environment. One player, the Narrator, takes on the job of creating that environment and the stories for the other players to take part in. Rounds and Scenes Together, you create your own tales of action and adventure, like your Time in True20 is generally broken up into rounds and scenes. A round is favorite novels, movies, or video games. a six-second segment of time, enough for a hero to do one or two things The best part about adventure roleplaying is you are in control of the in the midst of a fight or other action scene. A scene is an indeterminate action! Literally anything you can imagine is possible, because you and length of time, generally long enough for something significant to happen. your fellow players control the story. Think of a scene as a chapter in a story or a single scene in a film. You may have played other roleplaying games, or this may be your introduction to new worlds of adventure. Either way, welcome to True20 Traits and new worlds of adventure! True20 defines heroes (and other characters) in terms of certain traits. These are game-defined qualities, usually assigned a numeric value to The Rules act as a modifier for checks. The traits you will find on the hero sheets include the following: True20 is based on a set of rules used in many popular roleplaying games called the d20 System, modified for fast, easy, and fun game-play. The Abilities are the six basic traits that define a hero: Strength, Dexterity, basic rules are quite simple and used to resolve virtually all conflicts Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each has a modifier in the game. This section goes over the essential rules of the game to ranging from –5 (terrible) to +5 (outstanding), with the average at +0. give you a feel for them. A strong hero has a high Strength modifier, while a smart hero has a high Intelligence, and so on. The Die Skills are trained abilities, things you learn to do. Training in a skill provides True20 uses a single twenty-sided die, abbreviated “d20” or “1d20” (for an additional modifier, added to one of your basic abilities, which you use “one twenty-sided die”). You can find these dice in game and hobby when making checks involving that skill. If you’re trained in the Knowledge stores everywhere. of arcane lore, for example, you get a bonus equal to your skill when making Intelligence checks to know something about the arcane. Skills give heroes Checks bonuses ranging from +4 to +20 or more at higher levels. Actions in True20 are resolved with a check, a roll of the die, plus or minus Feats are special capabilities, talents, or knacks heroes may have. Each a modifier. The result of the check is compared to adifficulty number: if feat gives your hero a special ability, explained in the hero’s description. the result equals or exceeds the difficulty, the action succeeds. If it is less True20 features many more feats heroes can have. than the difficulty, it fails. Sometimes the degree of success or failure (how much the check result is above or below the difficulty) matters; Attack measures your hero’s training in combat. It is the modifier you other times, it does not. add to your rolls to hit an enemy in a fight. Defense measures your hero’s ability to avoid attacks. It determines Difficulty the difficulty to hit your hero in combat. Any task in True20 can be assigned a numeric difficulty, the result you Saving Throws (or “saves” for short) are a hero’s traits for avoiding need to get on a check to accomplish that task. General difficulties are or resisting certain effects. Toughness is used for resisting damage and automatic (0, you don’t even need to roll), easy (5), average (10), tough direct harm. Fortitude is for resisting attacks on the hero’s health, and (15), challenging (20), formidable (25), heroic (30), super-heroic (35), is based on Constitution. Reflex is for avoiding harm using speed and and nearly impossible (40). Only the greatest heroes can accomplish reaction time, and is based on Dexterity. Will is for resisting mental high-difficulty tasks on a regular basis. influences and arcane powers, and is based on Wisdom. A saving throw is like any other check: a roll, plus your hero’s save modifier, against the Difficulties difficulty of the effect or hazard you want to avoid. Difficulty Number Conviction is a special quality of heroes (and other important Easy 5 characters in the story). It represents their ability to overcome adversity Average 10 and do important things when they need to. All True20 heroes have 3 points of Conviction to start and gain more as they advanced in level. Tough 15 You can spend a point of Conviction to re-roll any die roll you make and Challenging 20 take the better of the two rolls. If the result of the second roll is 10 or Formidable 25 below, add 10 to it, meaning you always get at least an average result if you spend Conviction on a roll. You can also spend Conviction to allow Heroic 30 your hero to recover quickly from injury (see Damage and Recovery). Super-heroic 35 Heroes regain all spent Conviction as the start of each adventure. Nearly Impossible 40 Interaction Modifiers Characters in True20 interact in various ways. Heroes try to negotiate Checks have modifiers, positive and negative numbers based on the agreements between disputing parties, or go on diplomatic missions. hero’s abilities and skills, as well as on the prevailing conditions. Villains taunt and threaten, or even try to sway heroes to their side. 2 Chapter One: Hero Creation People get into disagreements or debates. The whole adventure may The Death in Freeport Adventure hinge on convincing the right person at the right time. These Quick-Start rules are intended to go along with the freeDeath in The Narrator determines the attitude of any character the heroes Freeport sample adventure available on the True20 website; they provide encounter during the game. The heroes can then try to influence the all the essential rules you need to use the pre-generated characters character’s attitude using Charisma and related skills (such as Diplomacy accompanying that adventure to play it and get a feel for True20 and or Intimidate). The Interaction table shows the effects of character how it works. The Quick-Start Rules are not intended for long-term play, attitudes and the Difficulty of attempting to change someone’s attitude so some of the various details of the True20 system, particular how to with a Charisma or skill check. Note that a particularly bad check result create your own heroes, have been left out. They are available from the can actually make a character’s attitude worse. For example, rolling less True20 Adventure Roleplaying rulebook. than a 5 makes an unfriendly character turn hostile. In general, a hero can attempt to influence another character only once in any given scene. While heroes can use their Charisma and skills to influence the attitudes and move actions to perform a full-round action, something that takes of Narrator characters, heroes generally cannot affect the attitudes of the full round to accomplish. Finally, some actions — like speaking, other heroes, nor can Narrator characters modify their attitudes. The making saving throws, dropping held items, and so forth — are free players choose the attitudes of their heroes, and when they change. actions, taking no real time. Heroes can perform as many free actions during their turn as the Narrator feels are appropriate. Interaction Attitude Means Possible Actions Attacking Hostile Will take risks to oppose Attack, interfere, berate, flee To attack an opponent, take a standard action and make an attack you roll. This is 1d20 + your attack modifier and your Dexterity modifier. Unfriendly Wishes you ill Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch The difficulty is equal to 10 + your opponent’s defense and Dexterity suspiciously, insult modifier. If you succeed, your attack hits. If you fail, you miss. If you Indifferent Doesn’t care either way Socially acceptable interaction hit, you may inflict damage, see Damage. Friendly Wishes you well Chat, advise, offer limited help, Attack = d20 + attack + Dexterity vs. 10 + advocate opponent’s defense + Dexterity Helpful Will take risks to aid you Protect, back up, heal, aid, support Damage New Attitude Result Starting Hostile Unfriendly Indifferent Friendly Helpful Anyone hit with a damaging attack makes a Toughness saving throw. This Attitude is a roll of 1d20 plus Toughness (which measures the ability to avoid or Hostile less than 20 25 35 50 shrug off damage) plus any modifiers from armor. Resisting damage 20 has a base difficulty of 15 plus a modifier equal to the attack’s damage bonus. For unarmed attacks, this is the attacker’s Strength modifier. Unfriendly less than 5 15 25 40 For weapons, this is the weapon’s damage plus the attacker’s Strength 5 modifier. For example, an attacker with Strength +1, wielding a short Indifferent — less than 1 1 15 30 sword (damage modifier +2) has a total damage modifier of +3. So, Friendly — — less than 1 1 20 resisting this damage is difficulty 18 (15 + 3).